CNN
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The Pentagon has denied Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s request for assist from the DC Nationwide Guard to assist migrants coming into the town by bus, based on a US protection official.
Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin denied the request because the MoD “decided that offering this assist would negatively affect DCNG’s readiness and have hostile results on the group and its members. “, mentioned the official.
The official mentioned the grants supplied via FEMA’s emergency meals and shelter program had been enough. “We perceive that SAMU First Response obtained a grant via FEMA’s Emergency Meals and Shelter Program and suggested that there are enough EFSP funds at this stage to supply help to migrants. ”
Bowser informed reporters on Friday that she needed to proceed working with the Pentagon to ensure political concerns “usually are not a part of their resolution.”
The Democrat, who has served because the district’s mayor below U.S. presidents of each events, alluded to using the Nationwide Guard in the course of the Jan. 6, 2021, rebellion on the U.S. Capitol: “Having the expertise the place using the DC Nationwide Guard has been politicized, which places the district in harmful territory,” she informed reporters on Friday.
“We wish to proceed to work with the Ministry of Protection in order that they perceive our operational wants and to make sure that any political concerns usually are not a part of their resolution,” she added.
In a letter from the Division of Protection, Bowser mentioned the Pentagon had underscored “concern concerning the limitless nature of our request and its skill to satisfy it.”
“So after taking a look at their letter, they appear to be saying {that a} extra particular request would assist them perceive our wants,” Bowser added.
In response to the workplace of Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott, greater than 6,500 migrants arrived in Washington from Texas on greater than 160 buses.
The town facilitated help from the Federal Emergency Administration Company with a $1 million grant, the mayor mentioned at a information convention final week.
Nevertheless, metropolis officers and non-governmental organizations have change into more and more involved concerning the tempo of arrivals in current weeks. The mayor’s workplace has requested to transform the DC Armory, Joint Base Bolling, Fort McNair or another “acceptable federal location within the Nationwide Capital Area” right into a migrant processing heart. The regional welcome heart set as much as assist migrants in Montgomery County, Maryland, is at capability, primarily based on demand.
“I’ve requested the deployment of the Guard so long as we’d like the Guard to cope with the disaster that we count on to escalate,” Bowser mentioned final week. “We count on the variety of individuals crossing the border in search of asylum to solely improve. And we’d like to ensure there’s a nationwide response, not an advert hoc, city-by-city, state-by-state response.
Bowser additionally identified the variations within the scenario in DC in comparison with different states.
“Now we have to ask the president for using our nationwide guard, which we all know will be very useful in these logistical issues,” she mentioned on the time.
This story has been up to date with extra particulars.
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